Low attention span and abnormal laziness

Uni student here. I've always been doing the bare minimum in high school and managed to go ahead pretty decently because of my culture (I like reading, documentaries ecc), but I'm substantially incapable of actual STUDYING. I chose to study Japanese, but unlike with English, Spanish ecc just consuming medias ain't enough to process the language, you actually gotta sit and Practice (writing characters and stuff). I can't even sit on my desk, the idea alone pisses me off and I end up procrastinating and doing literally anything else. How do I fix this?

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Do you exercise? How's your sleep hygiene? Diet? Do you drink coffee? Any regular drugs or drinking?

Used to exercise, not doing it anymore though I'm neither obese nor underweight. I tend to sleep 8 hours a night and bedtime tends to be before midnight, though in the last 2 days anxiety for incoming exams made me stay up late and my cycles are fucked up. I drink a good amount of coffee, 3-4 cups a day. No drugs, occasionally alcohol

You are NOT incapable of studying. You just never learned how to - and worse, you learned you could get by in high school without it.

Well, now you have to, and it is 100% a matter of discipline. You order yourself to sit there and study, and you don't let yourself escape. Eventually it becomes second nature.

(This doesn't mean long stretches. Studies show that more than a half-hour or so becomes unproductive. So chain yourself to the chair and the textbook for a full half hour, and then give yourself a 15 minute break before moving on to a half-hour of something else.)

Your college probably has a "Study Skills Clinic" or something like that to give you advice and help

This sounds reasonable. Did you have similar problems before? How can I coerce myself into actually doing stuff?

I'd definitely cut back on the coffee, try to keep it to one a day, two if you really need it. Don't drink any caffeine >12hrs before you plan to go to bed.
>I'm neither obese nor underweight.
Every human being needs exercise. Our bodies weren't made to stay still. I guarantee if you get on a good exercise regimen your focus will improve. You don't have to be breaking a sweat at the gym seven days a week, even just going for 15 minute walks once or twice a day can help here. Additionally, meditation might help you quite a bit. From one person who struggles with focus to another, meditation literally changed my life.
This poster is spot on. There isn't going to be a magic trick that suddenly fixes the problem. It's going to take some effort and discipline, and you have to want to make it better.

Thinking about it is more difficult than doing it. You gotta find a way to trick yourself.

What do you mean

you gotta sit down and start before you have a chance to think about it. it's a big part of adulthood first of all to realize you are fully responsible for your own time and then disciplining yourself enough to use it for something productive. a lot of ppl cant make that cut so they get a 9-5. it involves no thought, not much self-discipline. procrastinating is a part of life but you gotta keep it under control and how you spend your time every day shows where your priorities lay.

you fap too much

>There isn't going to be a magic trick that suddenly fixes the problem. It's going to take some effort and discipline, and you have to want to make it better.
im so fucking done hearing this

we are on the same boat op
you prob have ADD

try fasting, jogging, ritalin, caffeine + theanine, meditation, flax seeds, antidepressants, shrooms

shrooms is your best bet imo
if you are happy studying isnt hard, ritalin makes you happy. thats how it works. shrooms can help you be happy and for longer than ritalin

I probably have ADD too, so should I microdose lsd or shrooms?

100% unless you have a history of schizos in your family
I assume, large doses can make trigger your schizophrenia but I dont know if small doses can too

My grandfather had alzheimer and my grandmother takes Zoloft (I dont know why, I've seen it in her house)

>Zoloft
its an antidepressant

mescaline and other hallucinogens reduce the risk of alzheimer's

>Eventually it becomes second nature.
Or makes you hating what you were into before.

until you dont have to study anymore

source? I wanna read up on this.

Honestly you should see the school psych and get checked out for ADHD (probably inattentive type, formerly called ADD). The fact that you can't focus or sit still, the fact that you self-medicate with coffee, the fact that you can focus on things you find interesting but just can't make yourself do busywork, all of these are very common and classic symptoms.

There are habits you can build and tricks you can do to work with ADHD without medication, but you need a diagnosis first. You want to rule out the possibility of it being anything else, which is why you should go see your school psych.

Do so asap, in the meantime here's a few tips from an ADHD inattentive type. Try them and see if they help you:

- Make the work as fun as possible. Play music to give your brain something to do, or work in a coffee shop or other place with ambient noise. Set an alarm and race against the clock. See if you can give your body something to do, like a fidget, when you can. You can also work together with people or just have someone else in the same room (this is called body doubling)

- Build a work habit. I always hated the idea of a schedule and a habit because it sounded boring as fuck but people with ADHD are some of the people who need it the most. Start work at the same time, in the same place. Have a little preparatory routine as well to help you get into work mode

- Get enough sleep, exercise, and healthy food. All of these are vital to your body and brain functioning at ideal capacity

- Be patient with yourself and start small. Focus on doing work in 15-minute increments. Even if you can only work a little at a time, keep at it and you will chip it all away. Remember that the brain has inertia. Starting is the hardest part. Once you start, you'll have an easier time keeping it up.

cont.

cont.

- Talk to your teachers and GET HELP! This is the thing I wish I could've told my high school and college self. I would ignore the problem and hope it went away because I had a personal issue with asking for help and was ashamed of my failure. Not asking for help meant I never got help, nobody knew what was going on, and everyone just perceived me as lazy when I all I really needed was alternative methods and some coping skills.

Your school will support you. Sucking it up and asking for help shows initiative, it shows growth, and it shows that you really do want to do better and that you are Trying. The fact that you're trying counts for so much on people's eyes. You WILL get people on your side if you just admit there's a problem and ask for help with it. Don't do what I did and wait for something to magically fix it, because then it ends up too late.

Also, don't do shrooms. While they show promise as a treatment for depression or anxiety, they do not act on the proper pathways to help with ADHD. They're also completely uncontrolled and unregulated which is a massive dosage threat, and they can contribute to other mental issues because of that. I'm all in favor of shrooms being studied for medical purposes but don't do risky unregulated shit. I've seen people die from that.

What people with ADHD lack is dopamine. You can increase your dopamine with exercise, by doing thrilling or exciting activities, and with medication. Medication is something you should consider, especially if behavioral changes aren't enough on their own. But brains are messy and complicated and you have to be very careful when messing with them, which is why it's best to do so under the guidance of a professional. They can monitor the effectiveness, help you avoid side effects, adjust doses as needed, and make sure that your treatment isn't something that will end up being dangerous due to any other medical history.

look it up

>While they show promise as a treatment for depression or anxiety, they do not act on the proper pathways to help with ADHD
how so
depression and anxiety are usually a result of ADHD, they are called comorbid disorders in those cases. I dont see how it could make ADHD worse either
in my experience nothing besides stimulants and shrooms help with my ADHD-PI

>They're also completely uncontrolled and unregulated which is a massive dosage threat
what threat? there's no risk of overdosing on shrooms, they are not toxic.
ive fucked up my microdose once and it fucking sucked but not only nobody noticed, I was being much funnier and social than ever before
my point is that there are no health threats to overdoses, you arent likely to get HPPD from one large dose and HPPD is the worst that can happen

>You can increase your dopamine with exercise, by doing thrilling or exciting activities, and with medication.
100% agreed yet it doesnt work consistenly, for me at least. what do you do when things stop being exciting, when medication stops working, when your healthy habits stop making you feel good
im not weird either, ive heard about a lot of people like me. maybe they were lying tho but im not

> But brains are messy and complicated and you have to be very careful when messing with them, which is why it's best to do so under the guidance of a professional.
professionals can fuck you up tho, ive never been the same ever since I started taking ritalin. I lost my ability to hyperfocus, my attention span is much shorter now
only after I read about it is when I found out that ritalin can cause severe depression with no desired effects on some people. no professional ive ever seen knows about this and they keep insisting I give take larger doses of ritalin

cont

ADHD is not an illness the same way alzheimers is, adhd is a condition and you should medicate if its to your benefit but no medication is better imo
you should be happy and enjoy what you are doing and thats what shrooms do to me
its makes you not bored and thats enough and from all the drugs out there its the only one that's healthy

pot makes me a depressed slob, alcohol is poison and addicting, coffee only works properly if you arent depressed or anxious, antidepressants make me hazy and stupid, meditating is fun and healthy but it will never make a difference, jogging is great and practically obligatory but it will not make you not depressed on its own

nothing works because im not sick, I was born on the wrong circumstances

It's true that there are some professionals that are useless, but illegal drugs should never be the first treatment.

If it works for you and nothing else does, that's fine, and I'm glad you found something that does work. But behavioral changes should be recommended first, controlled medicine second, and illegal substances last, only after the others have failed.

Also, depression and anxiety are comorbid with ADHD, this is true, but treating just them without treating the underlying condition is much less effective. For some people, both need to be handled, but treating the symptoms and not the cause is never going to be as effective.

I'm sorry you had such an issue with professionals. That really sucks. Hell, I know what it's like to have a professional who doesn't listen and just tries some shitty bandaid method. I'd gone through a few of them, and I've just recently found a professional that takes me seriously, and the difference is night and day. It's important to find someone who does actually listen when you say it's not working. There are legitimately helpful professionals out there and it's worth finding them.

mdma is being studied as a PTSD treatmeant, they've been using ketamine for a while for several types of treatments, esketamine is used to treat treatment resistant depression, there is plenty of anecdotal and now clinical evidence that hallucinogens are great antidepressants
they are proven to be safe too

>but illegal drugs should never be the first treatment.
laws make illegal drugs illegals and laws change
homosexuality used to be illegal

> But behavioral changes should be recommended first, controlled medicine second, and illegal substances last, only after the others have failed.
100% agreed
in my experience I literally couldnt cant care, ive been to a cognitive behaviorist and it didnt work because I was too depressed. I feel like now is the time to see a cognitive behaviorist because im starting to feel. I actually want to go


>Also, depression and anxiety are comorbid with ADHD, this is true, but treating just them without treating the underlying condition is much less effective. For some people, both need to be handled, but treating the symptoms and not the cause is never going to be as effective.
whats the cause of ADHD?
its not an illness, its a genetic condition and its there because at some point it helped us

>There are legitimately helpful professionals out there and it's worth finding them.
I dont want to come across as agains health practitioners in anyway
imo the thing is that people dont know a lot about ADHD. when ritalin doesnt work they are left clueless so they improvise and that can either hurt you or lose you time and I personally am done losing time

I reccomend microdosing to everyone because I truly believe that its the only thing that can treat depression and ADHD with no side effects. I could be wrong but I cant help feeling this way

It's definitely not no side effects because psilocybin can cause anxiety, psychotic and panic attacks, and can also trigger a condition called "hallucinogen persisting perception disorder" or HPPD, which can last for months or even years in some cases, where hallucinations continue to happen even with no drug exposure. A lower dose would definitely be less likely to trigger these.

This is why I recommend a professional, though. The addition of any new substance to someone's body is always a risk and so it's important to make sure that the person is monitored during it.

Also, as someone with ADHD, I definitely don't view it as a purely harmful thing. There's some pretty cool stuff about ADHD. The hyperfocus, the enthusiasm it gives me for life, the way that I can stay calm in a crisis because my brain is able to function instead of being overloaded. Things like this could definitely provide a survival advantage, and I've heard it theorized that people with ADHD could make effective hunters.

However, as nice as it can be, I would still classify it as a disorder because of how it affects the brain in a biological sense. While ADHD can be a great benefit to some, it's something that needs to be worked with and managed in order to be a benefit, and there's way too many people who are hindered or have had their lives completely destroyed due to a lack of help or treatment. It's still a lesser amount of dopamine, reduce executive function, reduced frontal lobe activity and thereby less self-regulating behavior, and it tends to come hand in hand with emotional dysregulation and other things such as depression and anxiety.

It's not all bad but it definitely has its bad points and can be incredibly destructive. I wouldn't trade my ADHD but I'm also lucky enough to be secure and stable and have the ability to manage it. It's like how people with depression tend to be more creative, but depression also limits the person's ability to be creative without management

On the other hand, I do also know that a lot of illegal drugs do have effects that can be beneficial. I'm fully supportive of the push to make these substances legal. It would allow research into them, clinical testing, the ability to isolate and refine the beneficial effects. It would also prevent people from just being thrown in prison for possession and use, and put the production of the compounds into the limelight, where they can be regulated and tested and made safe. The very fact that they are illegal means that they are made more dangerous, because there's nothing in place to protect the users, and the users either feel like they can't or actually can't seek help when harm is done to them by this, because of the illegality of it. I'm a firm believer in legalization, harm reduction, and research, because there is definitely great potential in some of these compounds.

And even if they're not useful medicinally, the American strategy of taking drug addicts and throwing them in prison does not help them, and only sets them up for further failure. We need a more compassionate solution, and that starts with making it so addiction is seen as a health issue and not a crime.

>A lower dose would definitely be less likely to trigger these.
yes, much less likely

>The addition of any new substance to someone's body is always a risk and so it's important to make sure that the person is monitored during it
you see a shrink once a month, thats not being monitored. you are the first to notice side effects and you can always resume taking your medication after you see a shrink (at least when it comes to these sort of treatments)

>The hyperfocus, the enthusiasm it gives me for life
I envy you

>I would still classify it as a disorder because of how it affects the brain in a biological sense
I get it, still if we all had it then it wouldnt be a disorder. we dont so yeah, but I still believe its not a disorder. you are born with it, as opposed to depression, alzheimer or lupus

>On the other hand, I do also know that a lot of illegal drugs...
me2, to all
the US prison system is a scam
drug addiction is not a crime

god I feel retarded, its been a while since I last had shrooms and I feel sluggish and hazy
you are so lucky, you get the best out of ADHD without most of the worst

Had the same problem in high school, I just think some people have a natural predisposition to just sit there for a few hours learning stuff they were asked to learn while others don't have the same drive. Unfortunately the entire school system is catered towards those former types of people because they make better employees and cogs within the socio-economic machine that dominates our contemporary civilization. Don't let others make you think that forcing yourself to study is particularly noble, it's just a socially acceptable way of changing your persona to live up to very nearsighted expectations.

It took me a long time to figure out how to do so, though. It hasn't always been easy. I've been on and off medication. I fucked up high school a decent amount, I completely fucked up college. It took a lot of time and work and trial and error to figure out how to function okay.

I still wonder if it could be better, sometimes, but I'm also at a point where I'm doing fine and I am very grateful for it. It didn't come easy, though, and things can still fall apart if I can't utilize my coping strategies, so it's not all sunshine and rainbows. But I manage, and can utilize the positive parts of it now.

>you see a shrink once a month, thats not being monitored.
Oh yeah, absolutely. A good shrink is someone who will see you frequently during the initial trials. I saw mine at least once a week, often more, and then slowly weaned off as it stabilized. I've also seen them give out phone numbers to contact in case of emergency and have had to utilize that a few times. It's a bad shrink that doesn't monitor more than once a month initially. Or overworked shrink, that's entirely possible, too.

>You are born with it, as opposed to depression, alzheimers or lupus
Depression can definitely be something you are born with, I've seen it happen. It's not always the case, so I personally distinguish between the genetic and situational kind. But some people can have "a perfect life" and still be depressed despite it. And I would venture that if we all had depression it wouldn't be a disorder, but that doesn't mean it would be a good situation. I see what you mean, though, and as far as conditions go it can always be much, much worse.

Tangentially related, they found a likely link between alzheimer's and a specific toxin produced by mouth bacteria. Hopefully there will be proper treatment for it soon.

Are you perhaps yoshikage kira?. Well now i am bot much better than you... but frustration wirh yourself helped me a bit... not a permanent solurion though.

You drunk or what